drowning petals
by winteredspark
Summary: /They sit in the backyard and watch their toes link.  one foot has nails with purple polka dots, one foot has chipped black paint that doesn't seem to care, and the other two are as plain as the lie they are living.  Love me, love me not. Macabre.


**_drowning petals_**

_**So, shoot me, but I've always been a Tori/Beck fan (winces as readers pull out pitchforks and ****BB guns.) I don't know; there's something about them that attracts me for no particular reason. And out of that misguided infatuation comes this little tale. I experimented with a new writing style here, so if you don't enjoy the lack of quotation marks I apologize. **_

**oOoOo**

Tori always loved to sit in her backyard on the two foot brick wall and pick roses - pink, red, orange and yellow, does it really matter?

The sunlight would pet her face and she would pull off each petal and murmer: He loves me, he loves me not.

**oOoOo**

She comes around the corner and sees them making out (Jade&Beck&Beck&Jade.)

I really don't need to see that, she mutters, heaving her bookbag into her locker.

Jade breaks away from Beck, her lips glazed in crimson gloss. Does it look like I care? She asks.

Tori moves to turn away and she doesn't mean to meet Beck's gaze - his irises look like storm clouds...chocolate storm clouds. Lovely girlfriend you've got there, she hisses to break the tension.

_He loves me not. _

**oOoOo**

They're hanging out for the first time since forever (because Jade is a possessive bitch) and slurping chocolate ice cream cones.

She takes a lick out of her cone and says: This is delicious.

You look ridiculous, Beck counters, dipping his pointer finger in chocolate and smearing it over her cheek.

Of course she has to get him back - and the only decent way to do so is to smash her whole cone over his head - and soon they are both covered in sticky ice cream.

It matches your eyes, Tori says without meaning to, sucking the chocolate off her fingers. The ice cream...I mean.

There is a lengthy pause (and she doesn't admit

that she's _scared of his answer_.)

Tori discovers that his lips taste like chocolate too.

_He loves me. _

**oOoOo**

He falls down the stairs of his motorhome while opening the door to recieve her.

Are you alright? Tori cries frantically as she kneels by his side.

I'm fine...just leave me alone, Beck groans, his hand digging into his side and coming away covered in crimson.

Tori backs off, remembering chocolate and stolen kisses and warmth in his now chilly gaze.

Call Jade, Beck orders her through gritted teeth.

She turns to him, startled by his demand. Why do you need Jade? I'm right here, Tori comments.

Jade's my girlfriend...not you, Beck answers and she's gone before he can say another word. A lone, yellow petal flutters in the breeze and she sits on her brick wall when she gets home.

_He loves me not. _

**oOoOo**

Jade flips Tori off in the hallway.

Tori begins to walk away with hunched shoulders, even though normally she would comment on Jade's crass behavior. It's different now.

Jade, Beck says, is that really necessary?

Tori finds him later. Why did you stick up for me? She wonders.

They emerge from the supply closet eight minutes and twenty-six seconds later, Beck's face covered in her Ravishing Touch lipstick.

_He loves me. _

**oOoOo**

They sit in the backyard - and it's Jade and Beck and Tori and Cat in that awkward sort of friendly way - and watch their toes link.

(one foot has nails with purple polka dots like gumdrops, one foot has chipped black paint that doesn't seem to care, and the other two are as plain as the lie they are living.)

I want to eat your toenail polish, Jade tells Cat. She promptly drags Cat's foot up to her mouth.

Cat smiles. Do I taste yummy? She asks.

Jade nods.

(two feet turn away from each other and pretend that life is a blank slate - Tori and Beck insist they've written a contract to give up chocolate; after all, it's not good for them.)

_He loves me not. _

**oOoOo**

She finds him lying on the road - and it's just so Beck she should have seen it coming.

You're covered in blood, Tori tells him.

I know, Beck shrugs and pats the ground next to him. I got hit by a car, he tells her.

Her eyes widen. Oh my gosh, she exclaims, why on earth would you do something like this?

He looks up at the night sky and weaves the stars into the shape of a woman that somehow resembles Tori (but to anyone else the stars haven't moved, don't care about lost, loved souls.)

I wanted to see what it felt like, Beck says at last.

Her lips press against his cheek and inhale days that should have been long forgotten.

(here's a secret: they never were.)

I think, Tori says, that you were trying to escape from your mistakes.

He smirks up at her - and is it just him or does her hair shine in this light? oh, it's just him. He asks: Did it work?

Chocolate always was too tempting and lips never tasted more like temptation.

_He loves me._

**oOoOo**

Time passes.

They get the news and stand in stunned silence. (dead, dead, this can't be happening.)

She jumped off a cliff trying to reach the stars, the paramedics say.

Beck wraps an arm around Jade - and the latter is wearing sunny yellow to a funeral because she just has to mix it up. He watches the coffin lower into the earth and disappear from sight.

Tori always wanted to touch her constellation, Beck says finally. Maybe she finally did, or maybe she didn't; he wonders about such things. He wonders if she loved him, if he loved her, if anyone knows what the hell love is truly made of.

(They forgot one rule: eventually the flower petals run out.)

_She is no more. _

**fin|**


End file.
